


we sing of love

by Arillow



Series: Leokasa Week 2020 [5]
Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Day 5: Masquerade, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, I think?, Idol Work, Kissing, Leokasa Week, M/M, Mild Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:48:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23812573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arillow/pseuds/Arillow
Summary: Knights are recording an MV, but Leo isn't too excited about it.
Relationships: Suou Tsukasa/Tsukinaga Leo
Series: Leokasa Week 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1710673
Comments: 6
Kudos: 58
Collections: Leokasa Week





	we sing of love

The western styled manor, built like a castle, was a rare sight. It belonged to a rich family who didn’t even live there; hidden away from the city, it looked ethereal, straight out of a fairy tale.

And still, it didn’t stir Leo’s imagination in the slightest. Having just left the bus that brought the five of them there, he just stared tiredly at the manor. It was nearly midnight now and they had been on the road for hours.

Their producer (Anzu had been too busy preparing a Trickstar live, so she couldn’t come with them, and in her place a producer from NewDi was sent) was explaining where they would sleep and that they should be awake early the next morning to start the recordings, but Leo wasn’t paying attention. His eyes had fallen on Tsukasa, who looked even more tired than him. With all the jobs Knights had been taking, coupled with school work and his family’s business, did he even rest at all in the past weeks? Leo couldn’t help but wonder.

Eventually they were led inside the manor and a guide showed them their rooms. Because there were too many staff people accompanying them for the recordings, almost all rooms were occupied, so they would have to share — Ritsu, Izumi and Arashi end up in a room together, leaving Leo and Tsukasa sharing a room.

“This place really is amazing.” Tsukasa commented after they were left alone. Their room was spacious, with two huge beds that looked like they hadn’t been used in ages; a large window gave them a view to a small lake, the still water reflecting the moon and stars above.

Leo merely hummed, changing into his pajamas. Tsukasa was giving him a contemplative look.

“Are you alright, Leo-san?” He asked. He had dark circles under his eyes that no doubt would need to be covered with make up for the recordings, and yet he was concerned for Leo’s well-being.

Well, he was always concerned about him, Leo supposed. Ever since they first met nearly two years ago, when Tsukasa would search the whole school for him just to remind him of their unit lessons, when he would carry paper for Leo to write on, when he would put futons and other supplies in the archery hall in the case Leo spent the night there… He was always looking after him.

“I’m fine.” It was a lie, but Leo was good at lying. He stared at Tsukasa, “And anyways, I should be the one to ask you this! You’re not overworking yourself again, are you?”

“I’m not!” Tsukasa paused, and then sighed. He sat on his bed in front of Leo, his shoulders curved like he was carrying a great weight. “I mean, I hope I am not. I always ask for help from you all when it becomes too much, but…”

He trailed off, but Leo understood. Tsukasa’s  _ too much _ was different from theirs. Leo had lost count of how many times he had seen Tsukasa wearing himself down, trying to do more than he could, before one of them had to interfere and convince him to let them help.

“Suo,” Leo said, his voice gentle as he said his name, and Tsukasa looked up at him as he approached the bed. “Please rest.”

Tsukasa’s eyes didn’t leave him for not even a second as he leaned down to press a kiss to his forehead. When he pulled away, Tsukasa’s cheeks were colored the prettiest shade of red.

“I-I will.” He stammered, and then cleared his throat. “You should rest as well, Leo-san. We’ll have a long weekend, so let us sleep already.”

Leo hummed in agreement. He watched as Tsukasa lied down and covered himself with the fancy duvet of the bed, and he almost asked to sleep together — but then he remembered it was too dangerous, someone could see them in the morning, and what would they do if people found out about them?

Reluctantly, he went to his own bed, wishing being an idol didn’t come with such annoying cons.

* * *

True to his word, their producer woke them up before the sun was even up. Breakfast was a blur as Leo was still half-asleep, just like the other four. He didn’t have time to complain, though, because soon they were ushered into changing into their outfits, while a team of make-up artists covered any traces of tiredness from their faces and made them look presentable.

The recording of an mv was a part of their promotional work for their next album. Leo had found the idea fun when it was first suggested, back when they did their first mv. Now he was annoyed at it: it usually took too much time, time that he could be using to compose more masterpieces.

(Not that he was composing anything currently. He hadn’t been able to compose in weeks now, and it was starting to get to his nerves.)

He had been looking forward to this weekend because, between solo idol jobs and college, he hadn’t seen Tsukasa, Izumi, Arashi and Ritsu in quite a while. Now however they barely had time to talk, being instructed by the director to where they should be, how they should act, what kind of expression they should have… By the time lunch break was called, Leo was already exhausted.

“I don’t wanna do this anymoooore!” He whined, sprawling himself on the chair by the table. “Can we go home now, please?”

“Why are you always like this?” Izumi complained, “Didn’t you sleep last night?”

“I did.” Barely, but he managed to sleep for a few hours.

“I thought Ritsu-san would be the only one to be lazy today.” Tsukasa commented, throwing a glance to where Ritsu was already sleeping on the table. After Ritsu and Arashi had graduated, he had dropped the “senpai”, starting to call them Ritsu-san and Arashi-san. It was still funny for Leo to hear that; he had been calling the four of them the same ever since he met them…

“Ritsu-chan, please wake up.” Arashi tried to shake him, to no avail. “Come on, you need to eat something before we go back to work.”

Leo looked down to his own food, a fancy obento that had been ordered for them. He wasn’t truly hungry, but he ate either way, because he could already feel Tsukasa’s eyes on him, and he had no doubts the boy would question him about his well-being if he didn’t take care.

* * *

The theme of the mv was a masquerade royal ball. All of the extras, just like them, were wearing fancy masks and beautiful outfits. The whole place being decorated like a real ball. And yet Leo’s eyes never failed to wander towards Tsukasa, no matter where he was.

Dressed in blue and gold, with a delicate black mask covering the top half of his face, he looked like a noble out of a fairy tale, maybe a mysterious prince in search for his princess. Leo remembered he was a terrible actor, but that didn’t hinder his ability to smile charmingly and move graciously just like how the director requested. Maybe it was just how he was — Tsukasa had always been naturally a gentleman, a proper knight like in old romances.

It was driving Leo insane that he couldn’t touch him, press him against a wall and kiss him passionately until they both were out of breath. He had gone weeks without seeing him properly, only communicating through their phones. Hell, he would give anything to just give him a quick kiss right now.

Instead he had to bury these feelings, pretend that he wasn’t dying inside to make out with their king and leader, and act like a proper knight for the recordings.

He hated this part of being an idol. Why did he have to hide their relationship? Because the fans would be unhappy? But if they truly liked them, they would be happy for them, wouldn’t they?

By the time they were finally allowed to go to bed, Leo was almost crying for some time alone with Tsukasa.

“We have to be careful, Leo-san!” Tsukasa whispered later, when Leo pressed him down on his bed and peppered his face with kisses. His hands clung to Leo’s shoulders, his face almost as red as his hair. “At least lock the door!”

“It’s locked.” Leo murmured against the skin of his neck, biting softly there which made Tsukasa’s breath hitch. He smirked. “No one will come to see us until morning, so it’s okay!”

“Still—” Tsukasa paused again to hold back a small moan when Leo sucked at his neck. “L-Leo-san, no marks!”

Leo grunted, displeased, but moved back up to kiss his lips again; only then, when the threat of marks that could give them away was gone, Tsukasa relaxed and kissed him back, wrapping his arms around his neck to keep him close.

They couldn’t really do much more than this, because they didn’t know who could be listening, and it frustrated Leo to no end. After a while, they just lied there side by side, staring at each other while trying to catch their breaths.

Tsukasa had already cleaned his face from the make up, so now the circles under his eyes were visible again. Leo ran a thumb under one of them, and Tsukasa grabbed his hand.

“We should sleep.” He muttered, bringing Leo’s hand to his lips and placing a tender kiss there. “We’ll have another busy day tomorrow.”

Leo merely hummed, but didn’t move from where he was. It was too comfortable, being next to Tsukasa like this; he had missed this. He curled up against Tsukasa, closing his eyes. Tsukasa said something about them not sleeping in the same bed, but Leo wasn’t listening anymore — in the arms of his lover, he quickly fell asleep.

* * *

Tsukasa wasn’t with him when he woke up, and instead was sleeping on Leo’s bed. It was still dark and their producer hadn’t shown up yet, so Leo turned on his side to stare at Tsukasa’s sleeping face.

They were dating for a little under a year, but it was already enough for Leo to think about his future with other eyes.

They were still young now — Tsukasa was still in school, in his third year — but they would soon grow up and become adults. He had never thought much about how his future would be or who he would spend it with, aside from the fact that he knew he would still be making music by then. (But even that certainty was shaken sometimes, like now; he was too tired to compose, the melodies he thought of too underwhelming, too unlike himself. For how long could he go on like this?)

Now, however, he couldn’t imagine a future without Tsukasa in it, by his side. But how would that even work if they couldn’t even hold hands in public? If all of their kisses and words of love had to be said and done in the dark, hidden away from everyone? Leo was not used to repress his love; rather, he liked to shout it out for anyone who would hear. He wanted to walk around holding Tsukasa’s hand, he wanted to steal kisses from him without having to worry about who might see, he wanted to compose symphonies about him and boast about it, let everyone know how much he loved him.

Lying like this was too painful.

He was still awake when their producer stopped by their room. Feeling exhausted already, he dragged himself out of bed. He used to love his activities with Knights — he still loves Knights. But when was it that this had become such a chore?

* * *

Leo spent the whole day in a bad mood. Having to watch Tsukasa dance with a girl — one of the extras, a beautiful model who worked with Arashi —, didn’t help at all. He was usually good with dealing with his jealousy, but maybe he was too tired to hide it today, because Ritsu was quick to point it out during lunch.

“Tsukippi, you’re making a scary face since early~” He sent Leo a smirk, likely knowing the reason. Very few people knew Leo and Tsukasa were together, and Izumi, Ritsu and Arashi were among them. “Nacchan is always saying if you keep frowning, your face will get stuck like this.”

“Grr, I don’t care!” Leo stabbed his chicken with his chopsticks instead of picking it up normally. Ritsu’s eyes scanned his face.

“You should rest after this,” He said.

“I will.” Leo couldn’t wait for the day of work to be over so he could get in bed with Tsukasa again.

“That’s not what I meant.” The way Ritsu was staring at him was slightly unsettling. Like he was staring into Leo’s soul. “When was the last time you composed anything?”

Sometimes Leo forgot how perceptive the self-proclaimed vampire was.

“What do you mean?” He asked instead, trying to dodge the topic, but of course Ritsu wouldn’t let him so go easily.

“Mm, I just noticed…” Ritsu stretched lazily like a cat before picking his own chopsticks to finish eating. “Even though we’re in this place that looks like a castle and Suuchan is dressed so nicely, you haven’t pulled out a pen and a paper not even once since we arrived here.”

Leo didn’t answer and Ritsu didn’t press any further, but that conversation left Leo wondering if the others had noticed too.

The slump he had in the end of his second year, when he locked himself away and refused to go to school, was his worst one ever. And even though he had other, shorter ones since then, his friends still worried whenever it happened.

Leo worried too, of course — while his friends had many talents, and while he had tried to broaden his own horizons, composing was still the only thing he was really good at.

His eyes wandered towards Tsukasa, engaged in a conversation with Arashi that he couldn’t hear from where he was. He really  _ was _ dressed very nicely. In other times, Leo’s mind would be filled with countless new songs born from that vision, symphonies about a handsome king in a mysterious ball.

Now there only were incomplete, distorted melodies about an uncertain future.

* * *

One of the furnitures placed in the big saloon for the recordings was a beautiful throne of silver and velvet red. They had recorded a few shots of Tsukasa sitting there, but after that it had been mostly empty.

After the recordings were over, though, Leo and the others found Tsukasa sitting there — sleeping. He was slumped over the seat, his head tilted to the side over his shoulder as he dozed off. The black mask was still on his face, and sleeping like that Leo couldn’t help but think he looked like a character out of a fairy tale — maybe like Sleeping Beauty or something like that.

“Well, would you look at that?” Ritsu chuckled. “Our little Ousama fell asleep~”

He poked Tsukasa’s plump cheeks, but Tsukasa only muttered something in his sleep and swatted at his hand. Ritsu pulled away laughing more.

“Poor thing, he must be really tired.” Arashi said. “He’s been working really hard lately.”

“Even though we’re always telling him to rest properly.” Izumi shook his head in disapproval, but his eyes were still gentle. It was hard to look at Tsukasa like this and not feel even a little bit protective. Even though he was growing up and was their King now — and even though there were new members now, younger than him —, they still saw him as their youngest, the one who had found them at their worst and stayed by their side despite everything.

Leo had a sudden wish to compose.

“Oh, there he goes.” Ritsu commented when he saw Leo asking for a pen from one of the staff members, and soon enough he was sitting next to Tsukasa, writing furiously with a borrowed pen on old script papers.

The three of them looked at each other, understanding that it was best to leave the two alone for a while.

Leo didn’t even notice the three standing nearby, driving away anyone who tried to bother him with perfect excuses and trained smiles. He was too busy scribbling the notes on the paper as fast as he could — before the melody disappeared. 

He had no idea how long it took, but once he was done, he set the pen down and sat back, frowning at the paper. This didn’t look good; it didn’t look nearly was good as it had in his mind. He was about to scratch everything with the pen when a sleepy voice sounded.

“Don’t.”

He looked up, startled, to find Tsukasa was staring at him — when had he woken up? The young king looked fondly at Leo, his face propped up on his hand.

“Why are you going to throw it away?” He asked softly. “I’m sure it’s a beautiful song.”

“It’s not.” Leo said. “I don’t like it.”

But Tsukasa extended his hand, and Leo gave him the papers anyway, because how could he deny anything to those eyes full of admiration? Tsukasa looked over the music notes quickly, having learned to read music scores over the years of living with Leo.

“I like it.” He said at last with a sense of finality. “May I keep it?”

Leo tugged at his ponytail, stared at his own hands now dirty with ink. His heartbeat was so loud he didn’t know how no one else heard it. How was it that this boy made him feel so good with just a few words?

“It’s yours,” He said in the end, shrugging nonchalantly. Tsukasa hummed happily and then stretched, yawning. Leo smiled. “Let’s go change? We should go sleep soon.”

They would be woken up early the next day again to go home, after all.

A few minutes later and they were back in their room; now wearing their pajamas, they lied again together on Tsukasa’s bed, facing each other. Tsukasa was nearly falling asleep again, but Leo was still wide awake;

“Suo,” He said quietly, and Tsukasa hummed to let him know he was listening. “I’ve been thinking… Maybe I’ll take a break.”

That made Tsukasa open his eyes, look at him frowning.

“A… break? From what?”

“Idol work.”

Silence followed his words. Many emotions passed by Tsukasa’s pretty violet eyes — confusion, hurt, concern, but finally he just stared at Leo with resignation, as if he knew this would happen eventually.

“For how long?” He asked. No attempts to stop him or hold him back. Leo hummed and shrugged.

“I don’t know. A few months, maybe. But only after our next tour is over.” Their new CD was ready to be released in two months, and after that their would start a tour across the country for three whole months. He couldn’t abandon Knights before that; his fans would be deeply hurt, just like his friends too.

“I understand.” Tsukasa sighed, and leaned closer to press his forehead against Leo’s, his arms wrapping around Leo’s waist, keeping him in place. “Well, if you must…”

“I’m sorry.”

Tsukasa looked at him, his eyes sad and understanding.

“Don’t apologize.” He whispered. “Of course I’ll wish for you to be back soon, but I want you to take care. You always put everyone else first, it’s time you take care of yourself above all.”

“You too.” Leo said, frowning. “You should take care of yourself too, Suo.”

“I will.” Tsukasa promised, but Leo knew he wouldn’t. He would just overwork himself as much as he could without collapsing, like he always did.

“I mean it, Suo.” He insisted. “Please? For me?”

Tsukasa’s eyes were soft, and he pressed a gentle kiss to his lips.

“And I mean it, I will.” He whispered against Leo’s lips, his breath warm against Leo’s skin. “If I don’t, feel free to scold me.”

“Oh, I’ll definitely do that.”

They chuckled, and the sound of his laughter made Leo’s heart flutter. He had missed this too.

“Hey, Suo…”

“Mm?”

He got distracted playing with a strand of Tsukasa’s hair for a few seconds, and then looked into his eyes again.

“I love you.”

“I love you too, Leo-san.”

Leo had never doubted that, but he still liked hearing it. He slid his hand down Tsukasa’s neck and finally stopped at his shoulder, clinging to him.

“I missed you.” He whispered. Tsukasa hummed, nodding, and whispered  _ me too _ . Leo hesitated before going on with what he wanted to say, “I was thinking… Starting next year. Maybe we should move in together.”

Now Tsukasa’s eyes had snapped open, all traces of sleep fading from his face.

“W-what?” He was quickly turning red, and Leo was amused. Even though they were together for nearly a year, he still got embarrassed. Cute.

“Yeah… It’s just a thought.” Leo added. “It’s just… Ugh, I don’t like it, not being able to do normal boyfriend stuff with you. We can’t do anything anywhere because someone might catch us, and then we barely have time together alone! I don’t like this!”

He paused his rant to catch a breath, and Tsukasa was staring at him with his mouth open.

Then he smiled.

“Ah, I see.” Tsukasa chuckled. “I apologize, I’m not laughing at you.” He added when he saw Leo pouting. “I was just surprised at this sudden outburst. I was concerned about your mental state, but if this is the problem…”

“You think it’s a small problem?” Leo frowned, and Tsukasa reached a hand to touch his eyebrows, as if trying to smooth the frown away.

“No.” He said. “But I feel the same frustration as you. If your problem is this, then it’s something we can solve together.”

“... Then, will you move in with me?” He suddenly felt very nervous. The thought of living under the same roof as Tsukasa, falling asleep by his side and awaking by his side everyday — it was so good it almost hurt.

“I’ll think about it.” Tsukasa said, and smiled sadly at Leo’s disappointed pout. “I can’t make any promises now, Leo-san. There are many things I must take in consideration before… But please know that I would love to do that.”

That soothed him a bit, and he curled up against Tsukasa again, pressing his ear to his chest to listen for his heartbeat.

“I’ll go back to my bed later.” He muttered.

“Sure.” Tsukasa said, his hands caressing Leo’s hair.

Tsukasa started humming a song — the song Leo had just composed, he realized. He had disliked it before, but listening to Tsukasa whispering it quietly into his ear, he thought that maybe it wasn’t so bad.

When morning came, he would have to put on his mask again, pretend he and Tsukasa were just friends, only unit mates and nothing else. He would go back to his lonely apartment, and Tsukasa would go back to his huge quiet manor.

But for now, he would allow himself to stay for a few more minutes here, listening to the person he loved singing to him.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure if it came across properly in the text (bc I'm terrible with words sometimes dkjfhsdf) but the whole point of the Masquerade theme was not only the MV, but that Leo felt like he was always wearing a mask when in front of other people and that he can only be himself when he's alone with Tsukasa or with his friends.
> 
> This was kinda all over the place because I didn't have a clear vision of what to do with today's prompt dkjhskjf but I hope y'all still liked it! ^^


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